The Science mailservice used Spamhaus for decades as one of the blocklists to filter spam in mail. When we were notified that we would need a commercial license that would cost ca. 5kEUR/y, we investigated how much more spam would come through without the Spamhaus service. This showed that users would get more spam, but most of it would be delivered in the Spam folder. Next to that, we expect that the spam filtering of the also used Exchange Online Protection will improve....

Last week, a new version of the Bookings Platform for Scientific Devices has been released. Together with Emendis, we have given the application a total make-over: not only the look and feel have changed, but also the underlying technique has been revised. From now on, we will use SurfConext for authentication. We wish to thank all colleagues who helped us to test the new application, and in particular, we thank Fred Melssen for all his efforts in the last years....

All license info, including the license codes, are now readily available for all Science users at the Science license overview page for the Science software managed by C&CZ.

After the storage downtime of CephFS in our Ceph cluster, we decided together with the users of this service to stop offering CephFS shares through SMB and NFS. All data has been copied out of CephFS. We have ended the CephFS service. We will only use the Ceph cluster to store our backups, using the S3 API.

The latest version of Matlab, R2024a, is available. The software and license codes can be obtained through a mail to postmaster for those entitled to it. The software can also be found on the install-share. All C&CZ-managed Linux machines have this version installed, the older version (/opt/matlab-R2023b/bin/matlab) will be available temporarily. The C&CZ-managed Windows machines will not receive a new version during the semester to prevent problems with version dependencies in current lectures....

The latest version of Maple, Maple2024, for Windows/macOS/Linux can be found on the Install network share and has been installed on C&CZ managed Linux computers. License codes can be requested from C&CZ helpdesk or postmaster.

The license for the LabVIEW from NI has been prolonged until April 16, 2025. This license is for the versions 2022Q3 and higher, that use a subscription model. The new 2024Q1 software can be found on the C&CZ Install disc. The license server is: labview.science.ru.nl:28000 In order to be able to check out a license, names of pc’s and/of users have to be entered by C&CZ in the license server. For remote pcs this DNS suffix has to be added to the IPv4 DNS configuration: science....

C&CZ is pleased that the recent vacancy for a systems developer / sysadmin has been filled. Since March, Arnoud Thörig works at C&CZ. Arnoud studied Mathematics at the Faculty of Science and has many years of experience as a Systems and DevOps Engineer.

For RU students and employees, the SURF service eduVPN has many advantages over the older Science VPNs: VPNsec and OpenVPN. It’s very easy to install and use eduVPN on Windows/macOS/Android/iOS/Linux and you have access to all Science services that are also available through the Science VPNsec/OpenVPN. We list it on our VPN page as the primary VPN to use. We advise users of the Science VPNs to move over to eduVPN....

A new version of Mathematica (14.0.0) has been installed on all C&CZ managed Linux systems, older versions can still be found in /vol/mathematica. When connected wired or wireless on campus or through VPN, the software for Windows, Linux and macOS can be found on the C&CZ Install disc. During the installation you must specify: License server: mathematica.science.ru.nl License: L4601-6478 According to the Mathematica Quick Revision History: “Version 14.0 continues to expand the scope and breadth of our computational coverage while streamlining and polishing existing areas....